About Kansas Department of Labor

Kansas Department of Labor Facts

Business Needs

Networking Solution

VoIP trunking solution to handle increased call volumes from around the
state

Business Value

Cost effective solution that streamlines and simplifies operations while
scaling up as needed

Industry Focus

State Government

Size

Annual budget of $731.6 Million

The Kansas Department of Labor (DOL) serves residents by administering the
state unemployment insurance program, managing workers’ compensation,
overseeing job safety for public employees and handling other
employment-related responsibilities. Its mission is to advance the economic
well being of all Kansans through responsive workforce services. The
department’s customers include more than 72,000 employers and 1.4 million
workers in the state.

Situation

Although unemployment in Kansas is among the lowest in the U.S., the DOL
handles well over a million unemployment claims every year. Most people submit
these claims by phone, generating between 30,000 and 35,000 calls each week to
the labor department. As the number of people seeking unemployment benefits
increased during the recent recession, phone lines were jammed and callers
experienced lengthy wait times. The DOL looked for ways to make it easier for
Kansans to get benefits. Because most state agencies’ budgets had been cut, any
solution the DOL considered had to be cost effective.

Solution

The Department of Labor chose AT&T IP
Flexible Reach, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) trunking service that
increases capacity by merging voice and data traffic onto a single network. The
managed Voice over IP (VoIP) solution provides the scalability that enables the
DOL to handle the skyrocketing call volumes that can occur seasonally and
during economic downturns. It also contains costs by reducing long distance
charges and eliminating the need for hundreds of individual phone numbers
within the DOL.

Growing Unemployment in a Land of Plenty

Kansas, the geographic center of the United States, has long been an
agricultural powerhouse and one of the country’s major producers of grain.
Although farming is still a mainstay of its economy, Kansas today is also a
major oil and natural gas producer and home to a growing aerospace industry. In
addition, the state has a number of employers in the transportation,
manufacturing, food processing, publishing and chemical products
industries.

We’re getting a better ROI over
the term of the contract and we’re moving forward with technology.”

This diverse economic base, an educated workforce and bountiful natural
resources keep unemployment in Kansas at around six percent, generally three
full points lower than in the U.S. as a whole.1 Even so, state
residents who lose their jobs and those with seasonal employment file more than
1.5 million unemployment insurance claims every year. Processing these claims
makes up more than half the workload of the Kansas Department of Labor, which
also manages workers’ compensation and a number of other job-related
initiatives.

Kansans can use the DOL website to submit unemployment claims, but more than
80 percent file by phone. As the U.S. recession began in the late 2000s and the
number of unemployment claims rose dramatically, DOL agents struggled to handle
triple the average number of calls – often more than 8,000 per week – and many
callers experienced long wait times before they could speak with an agent.

The department was already searching for ways to eliminate the bottlenecks
at its call
center and improve customer service. When faced with budget cuts, it became
imperative for the DOL to move quickly to cut costs and make it faster and
easier for citizens to get the unemployment benefits they need.

Designing Customer-centered Processes

Conventional wisdom dictates that organizations can increase operational
efficiency by pushing customers to use the Web instead of the phone to conduct
business. “It’s less expensive if customers can process their own claims,” said
Daniel Kuckelman, DOL Director of Technology Services. “But you have to
consider your customer base. Many of our folks don’t have the connectivity or
access to a computer to apply online.”

People who are unemployed for an extended time are often forced to cancel
non-essentials like Internet service to save money, he said. “We had the
dilemma of forcing people to try to find an Internet connection or continuing
to be able to provide customer service via phone.”

Since losing a job can be traumatic, the department wanted people applying
for unemployment to be able to connect with a human being. “Our goal is to talk
to folks in a polite and productive manner so that we can answer their
questions, make sure that they’re receiving their payments and assist them in
obtaining a job,” he said. “If that’s not possible, we want to make sure we
help them carry forward so that their benefits are paid until they can get back
in the employment cycle.”

Looking for Other Options

Rather than requiring customers to use the Internet, the DOL began looking
for ways to make it easier for people to file claims by phone while controlling
costs. The first step was to consolidate its Kansas City and Wichita contact
centers into its Topeka center to enhance efficiencies. The AT&T account
team recommended deploying a VoIP trunking arrangement on AT&T IP Flexible
Reach, a managed VoIP
solution that increased call center capacity and reduced telecommunications
expenditures.

For customers’ convenience, the department kept the numbers used by callers
from the Kansas City and Wichita areas by utilizing an AT&T IP Flexible
Reach feature called “virtual telephone numbers.” This ensures that when
calling to file for unemployment benefits, customers can dial a local number
without incurring long distance charges. The virtual telephone numbers meant
that callers were not inconvenienced by the network migration. “The transition
to VoIP was seamless for our customers,” he said.

“Moving to AT&T IP Flexible Reach was a natural progression as we tried
to more efficiently manage resources for the state and better serve our
citizens,” Kuckelman said. “We have a responsibility to use public funds
carefully as we are caretakers of the taxpayers’ money. We can now provide
phone service to connect callers to a live person via the telephone for a lower
cost than we could before,” Kuckelman said. “That’s a positive thing for us
because we can continue to provide service over the phone for customers that
prefer to utilize that method.”

Benefits Beyond the Call Center

In addition to improving the efficiency of its call center, AT&T IP
Flexible Reach saved the DOL money by eliminating the need for hundreds of
direct phone lines. “In one location, our main business office in Topeka, we
eliminated about 150 phone numbers. That’s a huge savings for us,” Kuckelman
said.

Instead of assigning individual numbers to employees, the department
implemented an auto-attendant to transfer phone calls. “That has been a small
change for the user, but it’s been an improvement because we’re able to
automate some call distribution,” he said. The department also reduced its
phone bills, since its IP Flexible Reach plan includes long distance minutes
resulting in approximately $2,000 in savings per month.

The solution also enabled the use of four-digit extensions for DOL staff
members, which makes it easier for them to collaborate.

Scalability for the Future

In addition to saving money and increasing efficiency, the department
increased the scalability of its infrastructure with AT&T IP Flexible
Reach. “The ability to expand is absolutely important for us,” Kuckelman
said.

Now there is no need to add phone lines when unemployment rises. The
solution’s SIP trunking uses compression technology to move additional voice
traffic onto the DOL’s network. In addition, IP Flexible Reach enables the
department to add capacity by increasing the number of call paths to manage
anticipated spikes in volume.

Since deploying the solution at its contact center and administration
building, the department has extended its savings by adding 50 more IP Flexible
Reach calling paths in Topeka. It also plans to introduce the service in its
Wichita and suburban Kansas City locations to give each office the opportunity
to better manage call flows.

As one of the final stages of its telephony migration, the DOL plans to move
its toll-free traffic to AT&T IP Toll-Free Service.

Better Technology Drives Savings

Kuckelman said the DOL’s experience with AT&T has been outstanding. “Our
account team has been great at explaining what our options are and what kind of
services they could present to us to meet our needs,” he said. “They’ve also
been very responsive if we’ve run into an issue and have a good background so
they can make suggestions and propose better solutions as we move forward.

Kuckelman said he also appreciates the expertise that extends beyond his
account team. “As we do implementations, the AT&T network engineers and
support specialists have always been good,” he said.

Working with AT&T benefits the department in important ways, he said.
“We knew that we were saving money and that we were improving the technology
with which we serve our internal customers,” he said. “This drives efficiency
as we serve our external customers, which is always our goal.”